Template talk:ArticleAlertSubscription

Documentation

It would be useful to have some documentation and examples for this template. Jamesmcmahon0 (talk) 10:12, 23 June 2016 (UTC)

The full documentation is at Wikipedia:Article_alerts/Subscribing, since the template is just incidental to the syntax. But I subpaged and transcluded the documentation here too. —  HELLKNOWZ  ▎TALK 12:09, 23 June 2016 (UTC)

Multi-source default for project and banner

@Hellknowz:, so you can't upgrade from

{{ArticleAlertSubscription
 |project=WikiProject Foobar
}}

to

{{ArticleAlertSubscription
 |project=WikiProject Foobar
 |delsort=WikiProject Deletion sorting/Foobar
}}

without shit breaking? You have to upgrade to

{{ArticleAlertSubscription
 |project=WikiProject Foobar
 |banner=WikiProject Foobar
 |delsort=WikiProject Deletion sorting/Foobar
}}

for the bot to work correctly? Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 12:38, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

Yes, that's why the warning was there. Otherwise this:

{{ArticleAlertSubscription
 |project=WikiProject Foobar/But this is not a banner name
 |talkcategory=All WikiProject Foobar Pages
}}

would end up being the same as:

{{ArticleAlertSubscription
 |project=WikiProject Foobar/But this is not a banner name
 |banner=WikiProject Foobar/But this is not a banner name
 |talkcategory=All WikiProject Foobar Pages
}}

In other words, |project= being equal to |banner= is just a shortcut by default that gets overridden if you add any other page source. —  HELLKNOWZ   ▎TALK 12:53, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

@Hellknowz: I'd have thought it'd be more straightforward to add |banner=no to suppress the banner subscription, rather than add everything else, but whatevs I guess. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 13:04, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

(edit conflict) That's because half the subscriptions are something other than the banner and all of them would need this |banner=no. The chance that users will add that is... questionable. If anything, we'd be better off requiring |banner= even if it is duplicate? —  HELLKNOWZ   ▎TALK 13:14, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

@Hellknowz: Template:ArticleAlertSubscription#Basic subscription take a look at the added advice there to make sure I got it right. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 13:16, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

Sounds about right. —  HELLKNOWZ   ▎TALK 13:23, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

Delsort values

@Headbomb:: What is |delsort=bypass? The bot still has to read the param and it will try to retrieve pages from Wikipedia:bypass and fail. The |delsort= is still used and it will be used in the new revision too, if slightly differently (just the topic name). —  HELLKNOWZ   ▎TALK 19:55, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

Yup, it will fail. This is because for Algeria, Wikipedia:WikiProject Deletion sorting/Algeria redirects to Wikipedia: WikiProject Deletion sorting/Africa. Since the bot doesn't follow redirects, it would be misleading to claim WP Algeria is subscribe to any Delsort. So it's bypassed. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 20:01, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

But that's a template problem, not a bot problem. The bot will ignore Wikipedia:WikiProject Deletion sorting/Algeria because it's not a page in Wikipedia:WikiProject Deletion sorting, but it will not ignore |delsort=bypass and will attempt to read it and then log an error. You should probably use a different parameter for template design needs that the bot can ignore, like with a special prefix of something. I'm also I'm reporting all invalid fields in the future. —  HELLKNOWZ   ▎TALK 20:25, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

It's a template thing yes. The bot will log and error, and we'll ignore it, but editors won't be mislead into thinking they aren't subscribed when they are, or subscribed to things they aren't. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 21:08, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

maincategory?

What does |maincategory= do? --Nessie (talk) 16:04, 26 July 2019 (UTC)

It gets pages from categories that are on the main (non-talk) page. Just exactly one level deep though. Such as Category:All disambiguation pages. Some others are using it, like Category:Surnames, but it's incomplete. This is why banner usage is encouraged instead to properly organize pages. It also wasn't meant to be actively used, due to how subject space categories are structured. —  HELLKNOWZ   ▎TALK 17:07, 26 July 2019 (UTC)

So is it more a workaround for WPs/TFs that do not have independent talk templates, nor talk categories? (such as WikiProject Japan/Flora and fauna task force), or as a supplement to the other sources of articles? --Nessie (talk) 04:03, 27 July 2019 (UTC)

It's designed so that certain mainspace (or rather, non-talk) categories can be used to subscribe. It will be useful for a very small minority of projects, mostly dealing with some aspect of the 'meta' of Wikipedia. E.g. Category:All disambiguation pages for WP:WPDAB or Category:Infobox templates for WP:WPINFOBOX. Regular WikiProjects will rarely have any use for it. E.g. WP:FLOSS uses Category:Free software, but that's more of a safeguard/backup, since that category will miss 95% of what's of interest to the project. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 04:21, 27 July 2019 (UTC)